The President of the National Association of Government Approved freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Tochukwu Ezisi, has charged government agencies in the maritime sector to pay conscientious attention to global standards as regards trade facilitation.
Ezisi who was speaking at the NAGAFF 25th anniversary and N1Billion fund raising ceremony for a befitting secretariat, held over the weekend in Ikoyi, Lagos, said this was necessary in order to position the country for effective competition with other nations of the world.
The agencies include the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), which he urged to step up their game and adhere to global standards to
He reaffirmed the commitment of NAGAFF to revolutionise freight forwarding practise, ensuring global standard practice and ease of doing business at the ports.
The NAGAFF President pointed out that the birth of NAGAFF in 1999 was hinged on the pursuit of professionalism that was grossly lacking in the industry at the time.
According to him, this opened the door to honest declarations that culminated in huge revenue generations by the NCS.
“NAGAFF as a public advocacy group has ensured that all revenue due to government through import duties and excise fees are duly and promptly paid by all practitioners.
“To realise this noble course, NAGAFF set up various arms and committees that took day and night to realise the goal, in collaboration with NCS and thishas helped to block all areas of revenue leakages by ensuring that the trading public is compliant with the extant laws,” he said.
Dignitaries at the well attended function donated generously towards the realisation of the ₦Billion permanent secretariat acquisition project of the NAGAFF.
The chief launcher, Chief Emelie Okika, and National President of NAGAFF both donated the sum of ₦20,000,000 each.
The chairman of the occasion , Chief Azubuike Ekweozor, also donated the sum of ₦7,000,000 and other gracious donations bringing it to a lump sum of over ₦100,000,000 realised for the building of the secretariat.
The occasion saw notable members eulogise the Founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, who is also Founder of the New Nigeria People’s Party, (NNPP) as a role model and great man of outstanding leadership qualities.